Ouroboros
by Blade of Justice
Summary: It was all in an endless circle, and no matter how many times Bardock went over it, there was no way to stop it now.


It had been a few days since Chilled had attacked Planet and, more importantly, the village that Bardock had found himself indebted to. Not that Saiyan were one for caring much about debts. While initially unaware of the connection that the being claiming to be Chilled had with Frieza, through his visions — his curse — he eventually reached a horrifying answer.

With that answer, Bardock knew he couldn't stay. Yet at the same time, he felt like he needed to stay.

"Where will you go? You'll always be welcome here. You're our hero, Mister Bardock..."

When Bardock has made his intentions clear, he had been immediately challenged by Berry.

Berry. Such a strange child. Never in all his years of destruction had he encountered an alien child that hadn't run in fear of him. To make matters worse, Bardock didn't know when it had happened, but he'd begrudgingly found himself becoming attached to the little brat. It was a peculiar feeling, and the man honestly didn't know what to do about it. It ticked him off, really. Why should he care about some little alien kid?

Yet the fact of the matter was that he did.

To a lower class Saiyan like himself, children had never been much of a part of his life before. You have kids, you send them out, and that was that. Only the upper class got to enjoy (if that was even an applicable word here) parenthood. It wasn't until he'd had that brief moment with Kakarot — and that vision — before Frieza destroyed their planet that he'd ever even paid his own children any mind before, yet here he was connecting with this child.

"Forget about me. It's none of your concern."

Bardock already knew that Berry wouldn't forget him. That was the core of the problem.

Chilled's family — what Bardock now knew to be Frieza's ancestors — knew of him. By now, the universe at large probably knew of him as well. Bardock knew for a fact that what made up the current Saiyan people of this time period would hear word of a mighty Saiyan warrior — a Super Saiyan warrior — and make their way to the planet, though Bardock also knew he would be long dead before they finally arrived to conquer what they would believe to be the promised land.

All thanks to him.

The previously peaceful Planet Plant, with their miraculous healing techniques and kind people, would eventually become the target of a lot of people.

Hearing word of the mighty Super Saiyan, the Saiyans would come for their promised land and exterminate these people, taking their healing medicines for their own barbaric lifestyle and leaving no trace of the planet's current inhabitants — just legends and stories.

Fearing the potential might of the Saiyan race as a whole, Frieza would eventually come to fear and then destroy the Saiyan race save for a select few he believed he could control and a smaller number he knew nothing of.

All of this was thanks to Bardock's actions on this planet. His... heroics.

He was no hero. He had never been a hero. He was a ruthless killer, a mercenary, and a destroyer of worlds. He was about as far from being a hero as any one man possibly could be.

It was probably fitting then that the one time he does something worthy of the title "hero," he unknowingly dooms not one but two races.

Bardock should have only cared that he was the cause of the Saiyan's eventual demise, but it wasn't just that.

He cared about Berry. These odd looking people that he had protected in his rage against Frieza... He didn't want them to be destroyed.

Yet they would be.

Because the Saiyans would come.

Because the Super Saiyan was here.

Because the Saiyan who became that Super Saiyan had come from a future in which the Saiyans were wiped out due to a madman fearing Super Saiyans.

It was all in an endless circle, and no matter how many times Bardock went over it, there was no way to stop it now.

It was a cruel joke. As if everything that had already happened to him hadn't been bad enough, he just had to go and doom two races on top of it all.

Looking down at little Berry, the twerp mustering the most defiant and hopeful look he could muster, Bardock sighed in defeat. He could leave tomorrow he supposed.

After all, there was a silver lining in the greatest cosmic punchline of all of them.

The one to stop all of the destruction that he had caused, from the prince of the Saiyan race that believed so deeply in the legend — Bardock's legend — that represented the race of destroyers, to the tyrant that killed the Saiyans...

It would be Bardock's own son to make it right.

As Bardock followed Berry back to the village, the Saiyan found himself smiling bitterly.

"At least I did one thing right."


End file.
